August 28, 2025 • 38 mins
Rebecca Contreras returns to share her remarkable journey from the barrio to the White House and now as a successful business owner who has built a $20 million company. Her story demonstrates how relationships, surrender to God's plan, and continuous learning can transform lives regardless of one's starting point.
• Building relationships that make or break your success
• Surrendering to God's guidance and living out biblical principles
• Developing yourself through continuous learning
• Moving from government employee to entrepreneur after being pushed out of a comfortable position
• Creating a business culture of "leading with love" that puts people first
• Handling imposter syndrome with affirmations like "I can do all things through Christ"
• Navigating business challenges by creating strategic pivot plans rather than succumbing to crisis
• Potential movie adaptation of Rebecca's story "Lost Girl" to inspire wider audiences
Visit Rebecca's website to learn more about her journey and pick up her book "Lost Girl."
Listen to Rebecca's first episode from Season 1 of Sidewalk Conversations.
Learn more about our sponsor for this episode, Amosouk. Shop handmade bags from around the world!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Piet Van Waarde (00:00):
Welcome to Sidewalk Conversations, season
number four.
I am so excited about our guestand I think the best way to
introduce her is to share one ofmy favorite quotes.
It's actually from Steve Harveywhere he says it is not so much
about how far you've gotten,it's actually the distance you
traveled from where you startedOne of my favorite things to
(00:24):
think about.
In fact, people ask me oftenlike what's the best part of
ministry, and there are manychallenging pieces, but on top
of it all, the thing that alwaysgets me jazzed and makes me
excited about doing what I do isthe fact that I get a chance to
get a front row seat in lifetransformation.
And one of the things that isso appealing to me and I just
(00:49):
marvel at it every time ithappens is that there are people
who have a life where not a lotis going right.
They don't have any reason forhope.
They don't have a lot ofreasons to think that their
future is going to be anydifferent, and they look at
their past and they think that'sthe determination for what
they're going to know in theirfuture is going to be any
different.
And they look at their past andthey think that's the
determination for what they'regoing to know in their future
and then to watch a product ofthe Holy Spirit take that life
(01:14):
and transform it so that allthose things are turned around.
They have hope, they have afuture and, best of all, they
help people who are where theywere and drag them along with
them, and that, to me, is one ofthe most exciting parts of
ministry, and today's guest hasthat kind of story.
(01:36):
I love her as a friend, but Ithink you'll grow to love her as
well as you hear a part of herstory.
She was a guest in season oneand when I thought about how I
wanted to start season four, Isaid I got to bring her back,
and so I'm very excited aboutyou hearing a little bit more
about her story, because a lothas happened since we had her on
(01:57):
in season one.
Before I introduce her, I justwant to say a thank you to our
sponsor today.
Today's sponsor is Amasuk.
(02:18):
Amasuk is a ethically sourcedhandbag company with products
from Japan, mexico and Morocco.
It happens to have been startedby my daughter and she loves
pulling together beautifullycrafted handbags for every
occasion, and if you're lookingfor a gift or something fine for
(02:41):
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It's an online store AmasukA-M-A-S-O-U-Kcom.
Rebecca Contreras.
Rebecca Contreras (02:55):
You've learned how to roll that R very
well, Pete.
Good to be with you.
We need a clap track.
Oh it's so good to have youback.
Piet Van Waarde (03:04):
Thank you for joining us today and you know,
one of the things that I loveabout your story is something I
said in the introduction, thatthe distance that you have
traveled from where you started.
I've heard a lot of stories andministry for 40 years.
People who, have you know,started in some hard, dark
places and then do somethingwonderful with their life and
(03:28):
the Lord helps them do that.
But I mean for you it's likethe extreme of that.
Rebecca Contreras (03:34):
Just a little bit.
Piet Van Waarde (03:35):
You started in the barrio and ended up in the
White House.
I mean talk about a transitionand transformation and people.
I'm going to link the timewhere you shared a little more
detail on that story.
But for those who may not knowmuch about what you've done and
where you've been, I'd like tointroduce it by asking you a
(03:56):
question.
And I know there's never reallyjust one thing that brings
about that transformation.
But if you had to put a coupleof either principles or
activities or practices thathelped you move in the direction
that you went to get to whereyou've gotten to, what would you
(04:16):
say are like two or three ofthe things top of the list?
Rebecca Contreras (04:19):
Well, thank you, Pete, for having me.
David and I have such a respectfor you and your lovely wife,
Carol, and just the richness ofthe relationship and the
friendship that we've built overa very short period of time.
It's beautiful.
Piet Van Waarde (04:33):
I love it.
Rebecca Contreras (04:33):
A couple of years, I think and especially
appreciate your leadership to usand the great communication
expert that you are and coachingus through that communication
process, and I think everyperson needs a friend like Pete
in their lives.
So thank you.
(05:07):
Depicted very clearly in my bookLost Girl, but there are three
what I would put at the top tierof sort of nuggets, pivots, key
key points of successstrategies, and at the top of
number one is your network andyour relationships in terms of
network and relationships thatmake or break you.
Relationships in terms ofnetwork and relationships that
(05:31):
make or break you, and theimportance of not only leaning
on relationships for lifesuccess, from your personal
relationships to your churchcommunity relationships.
Pastor Rob talked about thisSunday connecting with the
church body to the relationshipsyou built in your career, your
own personal relationship withyour family and, in my case, my
husband and the huge catalyst hehas been in my journey in my
(05:53):
life, and those relationshipsare so central to my success.
I was in Dallas just this pastMonday and shared with a group
of several hundred women theregathered.
You know, you are not an islandby yourself.
No woman makes it by herself,no person makes it by themselves
.
And those relationships are key.
(06:14):
And certainly you know thesurrendered life, surrendered
under the guidance and thejourney of the Holy Spirit and
God.
And you know, I would even takeit a step further and not just
say God, because we can allbelieve in God and we can all
say that we are surrendered, buta true surrendered life, living
(06:37):
out the gospel of Jesus andyour life surrender right In
terms of how you listen, how youheed, how you pivot and embrace
those important, godly biblicalprinciples that are such a part
of my journey, and I'll justgive you a quick sort of aha
(07:00):
moment around.
That nugget is the first timethat I read Jeremiah 29, 11,.
You know for I know the plans Ihave for you, declares the Lord.
And when you have a backgroundlike mine, which is in the sort
of below ground zero, and youend up where I end up, there's
no way you can say that was nota miracle.
(07:21):
And somewhere along the journey,you know, god didn't know he
had a plan for me.
And as I surrendered and livedthat principle in terms of that
surrender, you know, I've seenit really live out.
And then, lastly, just you know, getting into a place where you
really and truly deal withyourself and getting yourself
(07:42):
out of the way and making surethat you are not only dealing
with the issues of your heartand yourself, but also
developing, learning, acquiringknowledge, getting better at
your craft, whatever it is thatyou are put on this earth to do,
and just having what I call alifelong adoption of learning
(08:05):
and gathering knowledge, gainingknowledge and even at our age
and you're just a tad bit olderthan I am right, you know just
living this life of constant andcontinual learning and just
acquiring knowledge to be better.
And I think you know, alongwith probably four or five other
key nuggets, those aredefinitely in the top three of
being able to contribute to mysuccess.
Piet Van Waarde (08:28):
Yeah, and I think one of the things I
remember about your story wasyou know there were key people
like Ann Richards at one pointsaw something in you, just said
that here you were, even thoughyou had the background which
didn't give you a lot of reasonfor hope.
(08:48):
You were a hungry, tenaciousstudent.
You really wanted to learn, youwanted to grow and I'm guessing
people along the way haveprobably seen that in you and
that's probably a large portionof why you are where you are.
Rebecca Contreras (09:00):
It's so important.
I just, literally yesterday,had a conversation with a woman
who was the catalyst to mycareer in government and
actually brought me in andtaught me everything I knew
about HR, which now I'm an HRthought leader expert.
That's what our consultingpractice does, and she's in
hospice transitioning to heaven.
(09:23):
And I was talking to her.
As a matter of fact, we have somany things on travel between
now and September, but myhusband is driving me up to
Dallas Again.
I was just there Monday, backto Dallas, to go see her on
Sunday for a day trip to justhug her and spend time with her.
Her name was Donna and I talk alot about her in the book, and
Donna worked.
Her name was Donna and I talk alot about her in the book and
(09:45):
you know Donna worked when AnnRichards was the state treasurer
.
She went off to be governor andin came Kay Billy Hutchison,
who was another iconic stateleader.
Donna worked for Kay at thetime and she took me under her
wing for probably 12, a good 12to 13 years of my first
(10:06):
government career and, pete, shepoured her entire soul and life
into me Not just from a careerstandpoint and teaching me all
things HR, because she was theHR director.
I was her assistant.
She sent me to school.
She spent time with me on thepersonal issues.
She taught me to be a mom.
When I had issues in mymarriage early on I would come
to work and she'd say, sit on mycouch, let's talk about it.
But she really took the time tomentor and cultivate me and
(10:31):
it's so important to have peoplearound you even today.
Yeah, for sure, no matter howsuccessful you are, you always
want that sort of trustednetwork of people around you
that will help you thinkdifferent and behave different,
because you know we don't knowit all.
Piet Van Waarde (10:45):
Right, right.
So you brought up the HRcompany, and that's really where
I want to kind of spend most ofour time today, talking about
your business career.
We kind of spent so much timelast time talking about your
rise to political prominence,but after the time in the White
House, what many would say, well, that's the pinnacle, right?
You pivoted from there tostarting this consulting company
(11:07):
, which has been supersuccessful.
We'll talk a little bit abouthow you managed that, but I'm
curious what was it that kind ofled you to conclude, hey, this
would be the next best step forme.
Rebecca Contreras (11:22):
Well, it's interesting because I was just
thinking about this and tryingto extract all the different
elements of that pivot, whichwas massive, by the way, as you
know, I've reinvented myself, Ithink, at least four times.
This was my government employeeto executive in business to
entrepreneur, now owner.
But Pete, I had left the Bushadministration.
(11:44):
That would be W Bush we callhim W, not the dad, but the son.
I had left the administration,david and I both had a privilege
of serving under President Bush, but we had come back to Texas
and I was thinking about joiningthe private sector to cut my
teeth in consulting.
But didn't quite know how I wasgoing to make that pivot.
Because when you're a governmentemployee, all your life and
(12:06):
that's all you do like how doyou go from government employee
to executive?
Right, exactly.
But I had, I had a pretty solidreputation in government and
reputation follows you right.
So I had a private sector CEOreach out to me literally by
blast email, you know, cold calltype thing, saying I'd heard
about your reputation.
(12:26):
I really want you to considerjoining my company and starting
my federal practice, to join asan executive and lead and begin
the federal work in the space.
And so I just moved back toTexas and I said I have zero
interest in coming to Washington.
I just came back and he said,well, I'll come to you and we
can talk about it.
And so he flew to Austin forone day.
(12:47):
We had lunch and two and a halfhours later I signed on the
dotted line to join his team andjoined and learned the what I
call one on one consulting, ofgovernment consulting, and that
practice, which was my practice,that I started and built, was
ended up being highly successfuland I made him millions and
(13:08):
millions of dollars.
And then I was like what's wrongwith this picture?
Actually, what happened was Istarted getting uncomfortable
because the practice had so muchsuccess that the partners got
really threatened by my successand they started kind of
rearranging the structure in thedeck chairs and all of a sudden
(13:29):
they brought someone in to takeover my portfolio and said we
need you now, but as an advisoronly, and I thought yeah,
there's something wrong withthis picture.
You know, sometimes God makesyou really uncomfortable to get
you to think about doingsomething different and you
think the sky is falling likethis is devastating.
They're trying to push me out,but that attempt to push me out
turned into the catalyst tostart my business Avant Garde, I
(13:52):
love how I mean.
Piet Van Waarde (13:54):
We're all familiar with the story of
Joseph.
You know where he said what theenemy used for evil, god turned
to good, and I see that sooften, and I think that's
exactly what you're describing.
We see a circumstance or asituation that on the surface
looks like, oh, this is terrible, but then God uses it, redeems
it for something even greaterthan we thought possible.
Rebecca Contreras (14:15):
Well, listen, we were sitting in church and I
was just so distraught aboutwhat was happening.
By then I had been commutingback and forth between Austin
and DC.
He was paying for my travel andpaying me a salary and paying
me commissions and all that, and, of course, I had about 60
people under me.
At that time I was running thepractice and we were sitting in
church and I had about sixmonths of this push-out.
(14:35):
I felt like they're trying topush me out, like something's
wrong and I'm not resigning.
Gosh darn it Like.
I'm going to dig my heels in.
I started this practice I'm notresigning but it was getting
really uncomfortable.
And we were sitting there andDavid and I just had already
been in prayer about something'swrong, but we're not quite sure
what to do about it.
And the pastor brought amessage about the eagle and how
(14:55):
God sometimes has to take theeaglet.
The eagle sometimes has to takethe eaglet and throw them out
of the nest to fly.
And he said some of you aresitting in church right now and
God is going to throw you out ofthe nest and make you fly,
because it's time for you to fly.
And David looked at me.
(15:16):
I looked at him.
We're like wow, talk about aslap in the face.
That meant I went to prayer.
We went to prayer together.
I sought counsel and I rememberthe wise words of my second
mentor, who was iconic bestfriends to President Bush he's
still alive today and a mentorof mine, clay.
I was sharing with him what washappening and how I was so
uncomfortable I didn't know whatto do.
(15:36):
I was making a lot of money butI wasn't an owner, and now
they're trying to push me out.
What do I do?
Do I resign?
Piet Van Waarde (16:04):
Well, gosh, I guess I should, and that's how
it happened.
And so when you experience suchsignificant growth, it means
like one pivot after another.
So you're kind of always tryingto play catch up at some level,
I'm guessing.
And I'm curious because thereseems like there's a kind of
leadership skill that's requiredto launch something, and then
(16:27):
another kind of leadership skillto manage and grow and bring
other people on.
Other kind of leadership skillto manage and grow and bring
other people on.
And I'm curious again if youcan kind of hone it down to one
or two little things or bigthings that you had to do in the
midst of trying to stay overand on top of all the things
that were happening for good.
What were some of the keys foryou?
Rebecca Contreras (16:49):
Well, I'll tell you, the top key is learn
how to take no really well andnever, ever stop after 100 no's.
And I think that because I hadhad so much success and I was so
revered in government andnobody would ever tell me no, I
wasn't used to taking no.
So all of a sudden I become anentrepreneur and I open my doors
(17:11):
to the business and I startknocking on doors and it's no,
no, no, no, no.
And you start to getdiscouraged.
Yeah for sure, when no doorsare open, you know a lot of
people and you know what youbring is valuable, but your
business is not making any money.
You've just left.
At that point I was making aridiculous amount of money, more
than I had ever made in my life.
I left for zero amount of moneymore than I had ever made in my
(17:33):
life.
I left for zero, literally zero.
I had no equity.
So when I walked away, they letme out of my non-compete, which
was good, but I walked awaywith nothing.
And so my husband had juststarted, had left his job to
start a non-profit.
So we're both like no incomeand we were like, oh my God,
that's not the word we, but youknow I won't repeat what we said
, what I said I'm the pottymouth in the family, but I did
(17:57):
know that I had to deal with noand I had to do it very well and
I had to learn how to scale thewall on that no.
The second absolutely pivotpoint and key key strategy was I
have always been gifted withhiring the right people and I
have been blessed with havingthe right people around me and
(18:18):
the right team, and I knew Icould mobilize a team that would
be smarter, better and possiblyeven more agile than me and
certainly would deliver betterthan I would.
I'm certainly the face and theleader and the motivator, but
I'm not really that smart.
It's the people around me thatare smarter.
And so I hired really smartpeople and I started mobilizing
(18:44):
the right people to deliver.
And it took us one entry point.
It took us almost seven monthsto get our first contract.
We hired our first employee.
I brought one of my top topdeputies over to work for me.
Then I brought my top seniorproject manager.
Both of them said I will gowhere you go.
And they were incrediblypowerful women, very, very good
(19:06):
at what they did, highly, highlyeducated, and they started just
knocking it out of the park.
And all of a sudden you know itwas recruitment and retention
and we're up to, I think, 120employees now across about seven
states and we just have a greatteam.
Pete, it's just that's awesome,incredible people.
(19:26):
Your people as an entrepreneurwill make or break you and mine
definitely have made me as anentrepreneur will make or break
you, and mine definitely havemade me.
Piet Van Waarde (19:33):
One of the things I've learned about team
building is like everybody talksabout it.
It's like you need a team.
There's no I in team and allthat but I think there's a
unique skill set that's requiredto build a team of one highly
capable people but then highlycommitted people who stay with
you over the long haul.
Those are not easy skills todevelop and they aren't common.
(19:57):
I don't think so.
If you had to talk about, whatwas it that gave you the
capacity to both attract reallygreat people and then to have
them stay with you so long, whatwould you attribute that to?
Rebecca Contreras (20:10):
Well, it's interesting, one of my.
Actually I have three clientsthat work for us that used to be
clients.
So when your client retires andwants to come work for you,
that's a pretty big deal.
My managing director in the DCarea used to be my client for
six years and she's incredibleand I remember when she retired
government she called me and shesaid they call me RC, rc, guess
(20:32):
what?
I'm retired, I really want tocome work for you.
And a year later she did my COO,who I worked with when I was
over the entire Department ofTreasury HR department, about
120,000 employees.
She was the HR director at IRSand so I had known her good
(20:53):
friend 20 plus years and soshe's my COO now and we've been
friends and you know she's beenmy COO for the last year and has
been on our team for two years.
I have so many people on myteam that were clients and or
people I met in government thatare just incredibly bright and
sharp.
But I'll tell you we really puta lot of love and care for our
(21:15):
people.
We have a motto at AG whichwe've branded and we have put
out there very visibly and verystrongly.
We don't shy away from it, andit's called leading with love.
So we love our people.
Pete Sounds simple, but Well,let me tell you, when I first
sort of put that line in thesand with our project manager
and said this is our DNA, we aregoing to be known to lead with
(21:37):
love I had one particular personsay to me it's a little squishy
, can we come up with anotherword?
Can we just call it somethingelse, maybe leading with grit
conviction?
I said no, we're going to leadwith love.
Leading with grit conviction.
I said no, we're going to leadwith love Because people have to
know that you care and that youcare about them as an
individual before they perform.
(21:59):
Nobody wakes up, even thenon-performers.
Nobody wakes up in the morningand says, geez, I think I'm
going to suck today at my job.
Everybody wants to besuccessful, and so we have.
Really, we have a greatmanagement team.
We've trained everybody on theDNA of leading with love.
We have a senior projectmanager who's our strategist
around that and she's branded usaround that.
And then we love our clientstoo, and sometimes loving your
(22:22):
clients means you have to pushback and say you're not being a
very nice client today to ourpeople.
So we're possibly not the rightcontractor for you, and that's a
whole nother story.
I've walked away from millionsof dollars because I've had to
do that.
Piet Van Waarde (22:36):
My people come first.
Well, that's the differencebetween articulating a value and
living it right.
So you could say we're going tolead with love, but then if
people watch that that valuegets trumped by well, this is a
really good business decision orwe could make a lot more money
this way, then pretty soonpeople become really suspicious
and skeptical about the tagline.
But if you operate in the waysthat you just described, then
(22:59):
people are for performance orhold people accountable for
achieving metrics.
Rebecca Contreras (23:13):
You know it just means that you are
transparent, you're authentic,you care, and then you hold
people accountable and you know.
Make very clear what yourexpectation is, and then they'll
rise up to meet thatexpectation.
Piet Van Waarde (23:25):
Awesome.
One of the things I'm curiousabout, um, because of your story
.
Uh, I I don't have anything asdramatic as that story, but
there there are parts of mystory that I can very much
relate to.
Um, and then you know, the Lordopens up doors for you and you
find yourself in certainpositions and certain roles and
(23:47):
you kind of have to shakeyourself and go what the heck am
I doing here?
I don't deserve to be here andI'm wondering do you ever
struggle with like impostersyndrome, like who am I?
Why should I be here?
Like I have no business doingall this?
Do you ever struggle?
Rebecca Contreras (24:04):
All the time, all the time I, I, uh, I do.
I actually tell a great storyin Lost Girl when I my first
time in the Oval Office with thepresident and you know just
having a flashback moment ofbeing a high school dropout,
17-year-old, you know, ex-drugaddict, on welfare.
All of a sudden now I'm anadvisor to the leader of the
free world.
President Bush actually read mybook and was blown away by my
(24:28):
story.
But when I worked for him hedidn't know my story and so he
read it recently.
But I talk about how in awe Iwas of being there and I've
always really made sure that Ikeep that humility and posture.
And, married to David Contreras,he reminds me quite often who I
(24:51):
am, and in a good way too.
He obviously is a big fan ofmine and has been a huge to fail
and.
I have to get into my quiettime and sort of pray my way out
of it, but a lot of it isexercising the discipline to
(25:20):
just do the opposite of whatyou're feeling, even though
internally you're feeling reallyinsecure, verbally, and
physically you have to manifestthat and just not succumb to
that insecurity.
Piet Van Waarde (25:34):
Do you have a practice where you kind of tell
yourself certain things?
Rebecca Contreras (25:37):
I do and I have a scripture that I use all
the time.
I just used it this past Mondaywhen I was with some pretty big
wig women on stage and I wasyou know, little Rebecca here,
highly accomplished women it was, you know, little Rebecca here,
highly accomplished women andbackstage before they introduced
me, I actually say to myself Ican do all things through Christ
(25:58):
, which strengthens me.
I am the head and not the tail.
I am above and not beneath.
I belong.
Piet Van Waarde (26:06):
Ah, perfect.
Rebecca Contreras (26:07):
So that's my practice.
Yes, it doesn't always work,but at least I tell myself it
and I'm walking it out by faith.
Piet Van Waarde (26:16):
I love it.
I think that's so awesome.
All right.
So now you've had a lot ofsuccess in business.
You have these things that youwork on, that kind of keep your
team together and keep youtogether.
And then, of course, this lastyear, with the new
administration, doge comes inand a lot of the things that
(26:38):
were kind of part of yourportfolio get cut and and you
know, I'm sure at moments likethat you're like, on one hand,
you understand why.
You know we have to worry aboutdebt and we have to make the
necessary cuts, whatever.
But on the other hand, when it'syou and it's your business,
(27:00):
it's a totally different deal.
Rebecca Contreras (27:02):
It's like I call that an oh shit moment.
Yeah, no joke.
Piet Van Waarde (27:08):
And so you're.
You know you have to startthinking, start thinking about
okay, what are we going to do?
So you had to make anotherpivot, and there are two parts
to this question.
One is how do you keep yourattitude right?
You could get really resentful,you could get discouraged,
right Like you could get reallyresentful, you could get
(27:29):
discouraged and you could startlike what a lot of people do,
just pointing fingers and sayinghow could they?
So there's an attitudinal piece, but then there's also like the
pragmatic part which is like OK, so now, what are we going to
do?
So how did you navigate thatpart?
Rebecca Contreras (27:45):
Well, that's actually in the.
I've been in business 14 years,so we've grown the company from
zero to a little over $20million in 14 years.
No small feat, but I'm veryblessed.
Good people, as I said.
But when the Doge team came in?
First of all, let me justpreface this I support the
(28:07):
elimination of fraud, waste andabuse in government.
As you know, I'm a bigsupporter of that and as I am of
what President Trump is doingin terms of improving efficiency
.
But when it happened to me, Iwas not crazy about it.
To put it 300,000 gone, 400,000gone, 600,000 gone.
(28:30):
You're like, oh shit how muchmore?
And you know cause?
You were on that prayer textthat I was texting saying pray
for us.
But here's what we did, pete,it's so important to have
perspective, to pull up and haveheavenly perspective, to not
try to get buried in the minutiaand caught up in the crises and
(28:51):
then all of a sudden, you're sowrapped up in the chaos and in
the crises that you can't thinkabove it.
And so what I did, along withDavid and my prayer team, is we
just pulled up and my advisors,you know, and said let's figure
out what this means.
I immediately called a teammeeting my senior project
managers.
There's five of us on thesenior corporate team and then
(29:12):
12 of us on the management team.
So we started with the seniorcorporate team and everybody was
like oh my God, what are wegoing to do?
And so we're having to laypeople off literally within
minutes notice.
Okay, so the Doge teamunfortunately came in literally,
was doing all the analysis, andthen we got contacted on four
(29:34):
of the contracts that were cut,literally at 4 o'clock pm.
At 5 o'clock your team is gone.
So 4 o'clock pm, we got thenotice and it wasn't the fault
of the contracting officers.
It's the way they were notified.
So it's all a matter of againthe chaos and the communication,
right, and so we didn't takethat personal.
(29:54):
But we had to figure out whowe're laying off and what this
means.
And in the midst of all thatchaos, I called a management
team meeting.
I made a trip to DC to meet inperson for an all-day session
and I said, okay, guys, first ofall we're going to take a step
back and we're going to calmdown session.
And I said, okay, guys, first ofall we're going to take a step
back and we're going to calmdown.
We are not going to get suckedup into this crisis.
This is not a crisis that wecan control.
(30:14):
We're going to take a step back, we're going to think about
what this means for us and we'regoing to develop a pivot plan.
And we did.
We moved into pivot.
I treated the team to lunch, weworked eight hours straight and
we brought in a consultant tohelp us do a pivot plan.
We're actually in month two ofthat pivot plan implementation.
(30:35):
So we started the pivot plan inFebruary.
It was a 90-day pivot plan andnow we're in implementation mode
.
We're full scale ahead.
We've had tremendous success inthat pivot plan.
That pivot has included a moveinto the private sector to
diversify our business, a moveinto the state and local
government to diversify ourbusiness from federal and an
ownership of where can we belean, mean and cut back expenses
(30:58):
so that we can then focus onthe core delivery of our core
consultants, because there arepeople we can't live without If
we reinvent.
We got to have these key peopleon our team and it has been
incredible.
Pete, you bring together all ofmy senior team brilliant women,
brilliant women.
You bring together them, theconsultant, and they come up
(31:19):
with it and they're leading it.
I have three key members whoare all leading the pivot plans.
We have lanes.
We've pivoted to threedifferent lanes.
They're all in execution modeNow.
They're just reporting to me onhow that pivot pad is going.
I'll be in DC in two weeks tohave a phase two of the pivot
plan and we have quite a bitgoing on in our pipeline and
it's going to be a great yearand our pivot plan is working.
(31:43):
We haven't seen the revenuegeneration yet, but it will come
.
As you know, build it and theywill come.
Dream it and it will happen.
But we have just a greatoutlook on what this is going to
mean and what it did for me,Pete.
As a business owner, is it onceagain forced me to think
different about my strategy andhow to pivot, versus saying, oh
(32:07):
my God, I've lost so muchrevenue, what am I going to do?
Other companies have not beenthat fortunate.
They have lost a lot, and myheart goes out to all the
business owners that lost a lot.
But for us, we are always goingto be the driver of our own
destiny and I have communicatedthat to our leadership team and
they're owning it.
Piet Van Waarde (32:28):
I love that.
I love that.
Well, the last question I wantto ask you is a more personal
question.
There's a effort afoot thatI've had a chance to kind of be
a little bit on the inside ofwhere there is talk of making a
movie of your story.
A movie of your story.
(32:49):
I know that's still very muchkind of like in the infancy
stage, but is there things youcan tell us about this?
What's going on in that?
Rebecca Contreras (33:04):
Well.
So this is once again somethingthat's like accelerated that
David and I both had no ourpotential.
And you know, pete, what'sreally interesting about how God
has worked with us together asa couple is most of what we've
done has been like fullacceleration, not plan it and
then do it, but are you comingLike way ahead.
(33:25):
And so we've had to reallychase what God is doing and keep
up with it.
And I don't know why God workslike that with us, perhaps
because we're crazy enough tojump off a cliff with him.
But my husband is a very strongvisionary in a lot of things
and he tends to I'm the sort ofwell, let's think about the plan
(33:45):
and he's like, let's go.
And so we have a nice balanceto that.
But we are talking right nowwith a couple of producers.
We've launched phase one.
We're doing kind of anexploratory phase one stage to
explore the potential of puttingtogether a multi-series type
movie script and hiring, youknow, script writers to put it
(34:07):
together and do what they call atreatment plan, and we'll see
where it leads.
The next 12 weeks are going tobe super essential to insight
and gained and learned, and thatincludes, you know, reaching
out to the industry.
We already have some greatinterest.
I wouldn't even have thought ofthis had it not come to me
right.
It's not something I came upwith in my head.
(34:27):
It's something that has beenvery heavily been cultivated for
probably the last year andrecently David and I have really
connected with and tried toalign to what's happening.
So we will know in the next 10to 12 weeks what that looks like
.
But it's exciting to think aboutputting Lost Girl and our story
in particular, you know, on thebig screen, but not just to see
(34:51):
it on the big screen.
But, as you know, I'm all aboutimpact and when we think about
the thousands of people thathave been impacted by the story
and just the great opportunityI've had to share it across the
US and even globally, I recentlyhad a FaceTime from a young man
in Africa who, him and hisuniversity students and the
(35:13):
whole orphanage, was readingLost Girl and they were impacted
by the story and they read itagain and again and again and
they FaceTimed me about it I'mlike, wow, there's places that I
think the story willcommunicate incredible hope and
potential and just the story ofredemption and possibility.
So we'll see where it leads.
But I am one of those thattakes things one day at a time,
(35:34):
as is David, and we're justreally trusting God for the next
steps and guidance around thatpotential.
Piet Van Waarde (35:40):
Well, I'm so hopeful about it.
I've had the opportunity, ofcourse, to see some of the
things that you've done and bekind of a fly on the wall, if
you will.
That has heard some of thethings that you've done and be
kind of a fly on the wall, ifyou will.
That has heard some of thestories of people who've been
impacted by your story, who sayI didn't know that I could have
a future, but what you sharedand the life you've lived gives
(36:01):
me inspiration and I've heardthat a few times just in person.
But I'm sure that that happensover and over and again and I
just imagine that a film youknow, and they seem to be, you
know, like you think about theChosen and the.
Story of David and all theseothers that have done so well,
and to hear that this could kindof fit in that same lane, I
(36:25):
just feel like that's going tobe so awesome.
Rebecca Contreras (36:28):
You know, pete, people are so tired of the
crap on digital TV Prime andNetflix and Hula and all the
different digital TV venues andI'm hearing and talking to some
of the producers and even peopleconnected to studios like Angel
Studios, which is a big, youknow, faith film industry I
think they were the producers ofChosen, but others, you know,
(36:52):
facing the Giants and other filmproducers.
And as I'm out there talking topeople and influencers in the
industry, I hear again and againand again your story needs to
be on the big screen, likepeople have to hear your story,
but people are ready for goodcontent.
Piet Van Waarde (37:07):
Yes.
Rebecca Contreras (37:08):
And I don't know about you, but David and I
will flip through Netflix andPrime and try to find
inspirational things to watch,and I think people more than
ever want good content, and sothe concept is let's put.
If it's God's will and if allthe different people align and
the investment is there, thenlet's put it on the screen to
(37:30):
let people know what God hasdone in our life.
Piet Van Waarde (37:33):
Yeah, I love it .
Well, I am going to be prayingtoward that end, for sure.
Rebecca Contreras (37:37):
Thank you for that.
We can always count on you andCarol and our other prayer
warrior team, your brotherPastor Rob and Lauren.
They've been such an incrediblesupport to us for gosh decades
now, so we appreciate everythingthat you do to support us.
Piet Van Waarde (37:53):
Absolutely Well .
Thank you for joining us.
This has been a veryinteresting and fun conversation
with Rebecca, and if you wantto know more about her, I'm
going to link her website below.
You can pick up her book LostGirl and be praying for the
movie that we pray will becomepart of her story and part of
(38:14):
the testimony that she shareswith the world.
So thank you for joining us andjoin us next week for another
Sidewalk Conversation.
Welcome to Sidewalk Conversations, season
number four.
I am so excited about our guestand I think the best way to
introduce her is to share one ofmy favorite quotes.
It's actually from Steve Harveywhere he says it is not so much
about how far you've gotten,it's actually the distance you
traveled from where you startedOne of my favorite things to
(00:24):
think about.
In fact, people ask me oftenlike what's the best part of
ministry, and there are manychallenging pieces, but on top
of it all, the thing that alwaysgets me jazzed and makes me
excited about doing what I do isthe fact that I get a chance to
get a front row seat in lifetransformation.
And one of the things that isso appealing to me and I just
(00:49):
marvel at it every time ithappens is that there are people
who have a life where not a lotis going right.
They don't have any reason forhope.
They don't have a lot ofreasons to think that their
future is going to be anydifferent, and they look at
their past and they think that'sthe determination for what
they're going to know in theirfuture is going to be any
different.
And they look at their past andthey think that's the
determination for what they'regoing to know in their future
and then to watch a product ofthe Holy Spirit take that life
(01:14):
and transform it so that allthose things are turned around.
They have hope, they have afuture and, best of all, they
help people who are where theywere and drag them along with
them, and that, to me, is one ofthe most exciting parts of
ministry, and today's guest hasthat kind of story.
(01:36):
I love her as a friend, but Ithink you'll grow to love her as
well as you hear a part of herstory.
She was a guest in season oneand when I thought about how I
wanted to start season four, Isaid I got to bring her back,
and so I'm very excited aboutyou hearing a little bit more
about her story, because a lothas happened since we had her on
(01:57):
in season one.
Before I introduce her, I justwant to say a thank you to our
sponsor today.
Today's sponsor is Amasuk.
(02:18):
Amasuk is a ethically sourcedhandbag company with products
from Japan, mexico and Morocco.
It happens to have been startedby my daughter and she loves
pulling together beautifullycrafted handbags for every
occasion, and if you're lookingfor a gift or something fine for
(02:41):
yourself, I'd encourage you tocheck it out.
It's an online store AmasukA-M-A-S-O-U-Kcom.
Rebecca Contreras.
Rebecca Contreras (02:55):
You've learned how to roll that R very
well, Pete.
Good to be with you.
We need a clap track.
Oh it's so good to have youback.
Piet Van Waarde (03:04):
Thank you for joining us today and you know,
one of the things that I loveabout your story is something I
said in the introduction, thatthe distance that you have
traveled from where you started.
I've heard a lot of stories andministry for 40 years.
People who, have you know,started in some hard, dark
places and then do somethingwonderful with their life and
(03:28):
the Lord helps them do that.
But I mean for you it's likethe extreme of that.
Rebecca Contreras (03:34):
Just a little bit.
Piet Van Waarde (03:35):
You started in the barrio and ended up in the
White House.
I mean talk about a transitionand transformation and people.
I'm going to link the timewhere you shared a little more
detail on that story.
But for those who may not knowmuch about what you've done and
where you've been, I'd like tointroduce it by asking you a
(03:56):
question.
And I know there's never reallyjust one thing that brings
about that transformation.
But if you had to put a coupleof either principles or
activities or practices thathelped you move in the direction
that you went to get to whereyou've gotten to, what would you
(04:16):
say are like two or three ofthe things top of the list?
Rebecca Contreras (04:19):
Well, thank you, Pete, for having me.
David and I have such a respectfor you and your lovely wife,
Carol, and just the richness ofthe relationship and the
friendship that we've built overa very short period of time.
It's beautiful.
Piet Van Waarde (04:33):
I love it.
Rebecca Contreras (04:33):
A couple of years, I think and especially
appreciate your leadership to usand the great communication
expert that you are and coachingus through that communication
process, and I think everyperson needs a friend like Pete
in their lives.
So thank you.
(05:07):
Depicted very clearly in my bookLost Girl, but there are three
what I would put at the top tierof sort of nuggets, pivots, key
key points of successstrategies, and at the top of
number one is your network andyour relationships in terms of
network and relationships thatmake or break you.
Relationships in terms ofnetwork and relationships that
(05:31):
make or break you, and theimportance of not only leaning
on relationships for lifesuccess, from your personal
relationships to your churchcommunity relationships.
Pastor Rob talked about thisSunday connecting with the
church body to the relationshipsyou built in your career, your
own personal relationship withyour family and, in my case, my
husband and the huge catalyst hehas been in my journey in my
(05:53):
life, and those relationshipsare so central to my success.
I was in Dallas just this pastMonday and shared with a group
of several hundred women theregathered.
You know, you are not an islandby yourself.
No woman makes it by herself,no person makes it by themselves
.
And those relationships are key.
(06:14):
And certainly you know thesurrendered life, surrendered
under the guidance and thejourney of the Holy Spirit and
God.
And you know, I would even takeit a step further and not just
say God, because we can allbelieve in God and we can all
say that we are surrendered, buta true surrendered life, living
(06:37):
out the gospel of Jesus andyour life surrender right In
terms of how you listen, how youheed, how you pivot and embrace
those important, godly biblicalprinciples that are such a part
of my journey, and I'll justgive you a quick sort of aha
(07:00):
moment around.
That nugget is the first timethat I read Jeremiah 29, 11,.
You know for I know the plans Ihave for you, declares the Lord.
And when you have a backgroundlike mine, which is in the sort
of below ground zero, and youend up where I end up, there's
no way you can say that was nota miracle.
(07:21):
And somewhere along the journey,you know, god didn't know he
had a plan for me.
And as I surrendered and livedthat principle in terms of that
surrender, you know, I've seenit really live out.
And then, lastly, just you know, getting into a place where you
really and truly deal withyourself and getting yourself
(07:42):
out of the way and making surethat you are not only dealing
with the issues of your heartand yourself, but also
developing, learning, acquiringknowledge, getting better at
your craft, whatever it is thatyou are put on this earth to do,
and just having what I call alifelong adoption of learning
(08:05):
and gathering knowledge, gainingknowledge and even at our age
and you're just a tad bit olderthan I am right, you know just
living this life of constant andcontinual learning and just
acquiring knowledge to be better.
And I think you know, alongwith probably four or five other
key nuggets, those aredefinitely in the top three of
being able to contribute to mysuccess.
Piet Van Waarde (08:28):
Yeah, and I think one of the things I
remember about your story wasyou know there were key people
like Ann Richards at one pointsaw something in you, just said
that here you were, even thoughyou had the background which
didn't give you a lot of reasonfor hope.
(08:48):
You were a hungry, tenaciousstudent.
You really wanted to learn, youwanted to grow and I'm guessing
people along the way haveprobably seen that in you and
that's probably a large portionof why you are where you are.
Rebecca Contreras (09:00):
It's so important.
I just, literally yesterday,had a conversation with a woman
who was the catalyst to mycareer in government and
actually brought me in andtaught me everything I knew
about HR, which now I'm an HRthought leader expert.
That's what our consultingpractice does, and she's in
hospice transitioning to heaven.
(09:23):
And I was talking to her.
As a matter of fact, we have somany things on travel between
now and September, but myhusband is driving me up to
Dallas Again.
I was just there Monday, backto Dallas, to go see her on
Sunday for a day trip to justhug her and spend time with her.
Her name was Donna and I talk alot about her in the book, and
Donna worked.
Her name was Donna and I talk alot about her in the book and
(09:45):
you know Donna worked when AnnRichards was the state treasurer
.
She went off to be governor andin came Kay Billy Hutchison,
who was another iconic stateleader.
Donna worked for Kay at thetime and she took me under her
wing for probably 12, a good 12to 13 years of my first
(10:06):
government career and, pete, shepoured her entire soul and life
into me Not just from a careerstandpoint and teaching me all
things HR, because she was theHR director.
I was her assistant.
She sent me to school.
She spent time with me on thepersonal issues.
She taught me to be a mom.
When I had issues in mymarriage early on I would come
to work and she'd say, sit on mycouch, let's talk about it.
But she really took the time tomentor and cultivate me and
(10:31):
it's so important to have peoplearound you even today.
Yeah, for sure, no matter howsuccessful you are, you always
want that sort of trustednetwork of people around you
that will help you thinkdifferent and behave different,
because you know we don't knowit all.
Piet Van Waarde (10:45):
Right, right.
So you brought up the HRcompany, and that's really where
I want to kind of spend most ofour time today, talking about
your business career.
We kind of spent so much timelast time talking about your
rise to political prominence,but after the time in the White
House, what many would say, well, that's the pinnacle, right?
You pivoted from there tostarting this consulting company
(11:07):
, which has been supersuccessful.
We'll talk a little bit abouthow you managed that, but I'm
curious what was it that kind ofled you to conclude, hey, this
would be the next best step forme.
Rebecca Contreras (11:22):
Well, it's interesting because I was just
thinking about this and tryingto extract all the different
elements of that pivot, whichwas massive, by the way, as you
know, I've reinvented myself, Ithink, at least four times.
This was my government employeeto executive in business to
entrepreneur, now owner.
But Pete, I had left the Bushadministration.
(11:44):
That would be W Bush we callhim W, not the dad, but the son.
I had left the administration,david and I both had a privilege
of serving under President Bush, but we had come back to Texas
and I was thinking about joiningthe private sector to cut my
teeth in consulting.
But didn't quite know how I wasgoing to make that pivot.
Because when you're a governmentemployee, all your life and
(12:06):
that's all you do like how doyou go from government employee
to executive?
Right, exactly.
But I had, I had a pretty solidreputation in government and
reputation follows you right.
So I had a private sector CEOreach out to me literally by
blast email, you know, cold calltype thing, saying I'd heard
about your reputation.
(12:26):
I really want you to considerjoining my company and starting
my federal practice, to join asan executive and lead and begin
the federal work in the space.
And so I just moved back toTexas and I said I have zero
interest in coming to Washington.
I just came back and he said,well, I'll come to you and we
can talk about it.
And so he flew to Austin forone day.
(12:47):
We had lunch and two and a halfhours later I signed on the
dotted line to join his team andjoined and learned the what I
call one on one consulting, ofgovernment consulting, and that
practice, which was my practice,that I started and built, was
ended up being highly successfuland I made him millions and
(13:08):
millions of dollars.
And then I was like what's wrongwith this picture?
Actually, what happened was Istarted getting uncomfortable
because the practice had so muchsuccess that the partners got
really threatened by my successand they started kind of
rearranging the structure in thedeck chairs and all of a sudden
(13:29):
they brought someone in to takeover my portfolio and said we
need you now, but as an advisoronly, and I thought yeah,
there's something wrong withthis picture.
You know, sometimes God makesyou really uncomfortable to get
you to think about doingsomething different and you
think the sky is falling likethis is devastating.
They're trying to push me out,but that attempt to push me out
turned into the catalyst tostart my business Avant Garde, I
(13:52):
love how I mean.
Piet Van Waarde (13:54):
We're all familiar with the story of
Joseph.
You know where he said what theenemy used for evil, god turned
to good, and I see that sooften, and I think that's
exactly what you're describing.
We see a circumstance or asituation that on the surface
looks like, oh, this is terrible, but then God uses it, redeems
it for something even greaterthan we thought possible.
Rebecca Contreras (14:15):
Well, listen, we were sitting in church and I
was just so distraught aboutwhat was happening.
By then I had been commutingback and forth between Austin
and DC.
He was paying for my travel andpaying me a salary and paying
me commissions and all that, and, of course, I had about 60
people under me.
At that time I was running thepractice and we were sitting in
church and I had about sixmonths of this push-out.
(14:35):
I felt like they're trying topush me out, like something's
wrong and I'm not resigning.
Gosh darn it Like.
I'm going to dig my heels in.
I started this practice I'm notresigning but it was getting
really uncomfortable.
And we were sitting there andDavid and I just had already
been in prayer about something'swrong, but we're not quite sure
what to do about it.
And the pastor brought amessage about the eagle and how
(14:55):
God sometimes has to take theeaglet.
The eagle sometimes has to takethe eaglet and throw them out
of the nest to fly.
And he said some of you aresitting in church right now and
God is going to throw you out ofthe nest and make you fly,
because it's time for you to fly.
And David looked at me.
(15:16):
I looked at him.
We're like wow, talk about aslap in the face.
That meant I went to prayer.
We went to prayer together.
I sought counsel and I rememberthe wise words of my second
mentor, who was iconic bestfriends to President Bush he's
still alive today and a mentorof mine, clay.
I was sharing with him what washappening and how I was so
uncomfortable I didn't know whatto do.
(15:36):
I was making a lot of money butI wasn't an owner, and now
they're trying to push me out.
What do I do?
Do I resign?
Piet Van Waarde (16:04):
Well, gosh, I guess I should, and that's how
it happened.
And so when you experience suchsignificant growth, it means
like one pivot after another.
So you're kind of always tryingto play catch up at some level,
I'm guessing.
And I'm curious because thereseems like there's a kind of
leadership skill that's requiredto launch something, and then
(16:27):
another kind of leadership skillto manage and grow and bring
other people on.
Other kind of leadership skillto manage and grow and bring
other people on.
And I'm curious again if youcan kind of hone it down to one
or two little things or bigthings that you had to do in the
midst of trying to stay overand on top of all the things
that were happening for good.
What were some of the keys foryou?
Rebecca Contreras (16:49):
Well, I'll tell you, the top key is learn
how to take no really well andnever, ever stop after 100 no's.
And I think that because I hadhad so much success and I was so
revered in government andnobody would ever tell me no, I
wasn't used to taking no.
So all of a sudden I become anentrepreneur and I open my doors
(17:11):
to the business and I startknocking on doors and it's no,
no, no, no, no.
And you start to getdiscouraged.
Yeah for sure, when no doorsare open, you know a lot of
people and you know what youbring is valuable, but your
business is not making any money.
You've just left.
At that point I was making aridiculous amount of money, more
than I had ever made in my life.
I left for zero amount of moneymore than I had ever made in my
(17:33):
life.
I left for zero, literally zero.
I had no equity.
So when I walked away, they letme out of my non-compete, which
was good, but I walked awaywith nothing.
And so my husband had juststarted, had left his job to
start a non-profit.
So we're both like no incomeand we were like, oh my God,
that's not the word we, but youknow I won't repeat what we said
, what I said I'm the pottymouth in the family, but I did
(17:57):
know that I had to deal with noand I had to do it very well and
I had to learn how to scale thewall on that no.
The second absolutely pivotpoint and key key strategy was I
have always been gifted withhiring the right people and I
have been blessed with havingthe right people around me and
(18:18):
the right team, and I knew Icould mobilize a team that would
be smarter, better and possiblyeven more agile than me and
certainly would deliver betterthan I would.
I'm certainly the face and theleader and the motivator, but
I'm not really that smart.
It's the people around me thatare smarter.
And so I hired really smartpeople and I started mobilizing
(18:44):
the right people to deliver.
And it took us one entry point.
It took us almost seven monthsto get our first contract.
We hired our first employee.
I brought one of my top topdeputies over to work for me.
Then I brought my top seniorproject manager.
Both of them said I will gowhere you go.
And they were incrediblypowerful women, very, very good
(19:06):
at what they did, highly, highlyeducated, and they started just
knocking it out of the park.
And all of a sudden you know itwas recruitment and retention
and we're up to, I think, 120employees now across about seven
states and we just have a greatteam.
Pete, it's just that's awesome,incredible people.
(19:26):
Your people as an entrepreneurwill make or break you and mine
definitely have made me as anentrepreneur will make or break
you, and mine definitely havemade me.
Piet Van Waarde (19:33):
One of the things I've learned about team
building is like everybody talksabout it.
It's like you need a team.
There's no I in team and allthat but I think there's a
unique skill set that's requiredto build a team of one highly
capable people but then highlycommitted people who stay with
you over the long haul.
Those are not easy skills todevelop and they aren't common.
(19:57):
I don't think so.
If you had to talk about, whatwas it that gave you the
capacity to both attract reallygreat people and then to have
them stay with you so long, whatwould you attribute that to?
Rebecca Contreras (20:10):
Well, it's interesting, one of my.
Actually I have three clientsthat work for us that used to be
clients.
So when your client retires andwants to come work for you,
that's a pretty big deal.
My managing director in the DCarea used to be my client for
six years and she's incredibleand I remember when she retired
government she called me and shesaid they call me RC, rc, guess
(20:32):
what?
I'm retired, I really want tocome work for you.
And a year later she did my COO,who I worked with when I was
over the entire Department ofTreasury HR department, about
120,000 employees.
She was the HR director at IRSand so I had known her good
(20:53):
friend 20 plus years and soshe's my COO now and we've been
friends and you know she's beenmy COO for the last year and has
been on our team for two years.
I have so many people on myteam that were clients and or
people I met in government thatare just incredibly bright and
sharp.
But I'll tell you we really puta lot of love and care for our
(21:15):
people.
We have a motto at AG whichwe've branded and we have put
out there very visibly and verystrongly.
We don't shy away from it, andit's called leading with love.
So we love our people.
Pete Sounds simple, but Well,let me tell you, when I first
sort of put that line in thesand with our project manager
and said this is our DNA, we aregoing to be known to lead with
(21:37):
love I had one particular personsay to me it's a little squishy
, can we come up with anotherword?
Can we just call it somethingelse, maybe leading with grit
conviction?
I said no, we're going to leadwith love.
Leading with grit conviction.
I said no, we're going to leadwith love Because people have to
know that you care and that youcare about them as an
individual before they perform.
(21:59):
Nobody wakes up, even thenon-performers.
Nobody wakes up in the morningand says, geez, I think I'm
going to suck today at my job.
Everybody wants to besuccessful, and so we have.
Really, we have a greatmanagement team.
We've trained everybody on theDNA of leading with love.
We have a senior projectmanager who's our strategist
around that and she's branded usaround that.
And then we love our clientstoo, and sometimes loving your
(22:22):
clients means you have to pushback and say you're not being a
very nice client today to ourpeople.
So we're possibly not the rightcontractor for you, and that's a
whole nother story.
I've walked away from millionsof dollars because I've had to
do that.
Piet Van Waarde (22:36):
My people come first.
Well, that's the differencebetween articulating a value and
living it right.
So you could say we're going tolead with love, but then if
people watch that that valuegets trumped by well, this is a
really good business decision orwe could make a lot more money
this way, then pretty soonpeople become really suspicious
and skeptical about the tagline.
But if you operate in the waysthat you just described, then
(22:59):
people are for performance orhold people accountable for
achieving metrics.
Rebecca Contreras (23:13):
You know it just means that you are
transparent, you're authentic,you care, and then you hold
people accountable and you know.
Make very clear what yourexpectation is, and then they'll
rise up to meet thatexpectation.
Piet Van Waarde (23:25):
Awesome.
One of the things I'm curiousabout, um, because of your story
.
Uh, I I don't have anything asdramatic as that story, but
there there are parts of mystory that I can very much
relate to.
Um, and then you know, the Lordopens up doors for you and you
find yourself in certainpositions and certain roles and
(23:47):
you kind of have to shakeyourself and go what the heck am
I doing here?
I don't deserve to be here andI'm wondering do you ever
struggle with like impostersyndrome, like who am I?
Why should I be here?
Like I have no business doingall this?
Do you ever struggle?
Rebecca Contreras (24:04):
All the time, all the time I, I, uh, I do.
I actually tell a great storyin Lost Girl when I my first
time in the Oval Office with thepresident and you know just
having a flashback moment ofbeing a high school dropout,
17-year-old, you know, ex-drugaddict, on welfare.
All of a sudden now I'm anadvisor to the leader of the
free world.
President Bush actually read mybook and was blown away by my
(24:28):
story.
But when I worked for him hedidn't know my story and so he
read it recently.
But I talk about how in awe Iwas of being there and I've
always really made sure that Ikeep that humility and posture.
And, married to David Contreras,he reminds me quite often who I
(24:51):
am, and in a good way too.
He obviously is a big fan ofmine and has been a huge to fail
and.
I have to get into my quiettime and sort of pray my way out
of it, but a lot of it isexercising the discipline to
(25:20):
just do the opposite of whatyou're feeling, even though
internally you're feeling reallyinsecure, verbally, and
physically you have to manifestthat and just not succumb to
that insecurity.
Piet Van Waarde (25:34):
Do you have a practice where you kind of tell
yourself certain things?
Rebecca Contreras (25:37):
I do and I have a scripture that I use all
the time.
I just used it this past Mondaywhen I was with some pretty big
wig women on stage and I wasyou know, little Rebecca here,
highly accomplished women it was, you know, little Rebecca here,
highly accomplished women andbackstage before they introduced
me, I actually say to myself Ican do all things through Christ
(25:58):
, which strengthens me.
I am the head and not the tail.
I am above and not beneath.
I belong.
Piet Van Waarde (26:06):
Ah, perfect.
Rebecca Contreras (26:07):
So that's my practice.
Yes, it doesn't always work,but at least I tell myself it
and I'm walking it out by faith.
Piet Van Waarde (26:16):
I love it.
I think that's so awesome.
All right.
So now you've had a lot ofsuccess in business.
You have these things that youwork on, that kind of keep your
team together and keep youtogether.
And then, of course, this lastyear, with the new
administration, doge comes inand a lot of the things that
(26:38):
were kind of part of yourportfolio get cut and and you
know, I'm sure at moments likethat you're like, on one hand,
you understand why.
You know we have to worry aboutdebt and we have to make the
necessary cuts, whatever.
But on the other hand, when it'syou and it's your business,
(27:00):
it's a totally different deal.
Rebecca Contreras (27:02):
It's like I call that an oh shit moment.
Yeah, no joke.
Piet Van Waarde (27:08):
And so you're.
You know you have to startthinking, start thinking about
okay, what are we going to do?
So you had to make anotherpivot, and there are two parts
to this question.
One is how do you keep yourattitude right?
You could get really resentful,you could get discouraged,
right Like you could get reallyresentful, you could get
(27:29):
discouraged and you could startlike what a lot of people do,
just pointing fingers and sayinghow could they?
So there's an attitudinal piece, but then there's also like the
pragmatic part which is like OK, so now, what are we going to
do?
So how did you navigate thatpart?
Rebecca Contreras (27:45):
Well, that's actually in the.
I've been in business 14 years,so we've grown the company from
zero to a little over $20million in 14 years.
No small feat, but I'm veryblessed.
Good people, as I said.
But when the Doge team came in?
First of all, let me justpreface this I support the
(28:07):
elimination of fraud, waste andabuse in government.
As you know, I'm a bigsupporter of that and as I am of
what President Trump is doingin terms of improving efficiency
.
But when it happened to me, Iwas not crazy about it.
To put it 300,000 gone, 400,000gone, 600,000 gone.
(28:30):
You're like, oh shit how muchmore?
And you know cause?
You were on that prayer textthat I was texting saying pray
for us.
But here's what we did, pete,it's so important to have
perspective, to pull up and haveheavenly perspective, to not
try to get buried in the minutiaand caught up in the crises and
(28:51):
then all of a sudden, you're sowrapped up in the chaos and in
the crises that you can't thinkabove it.
And so what I did, along withDavid and my prayer team, is we
just pulled up and my advisors,you know, and said let's figure
out what this means.
I immediately called a teammeeting my senior project
managers.
There's five of us on thesenior corporate team and then
(29:12):
12 of us on the management team.
So we started with the seniorcorporate team and everybody was
like oh my God, what are wegoing to do?
And so we're having to laypeople off literally within
minutes notice.
Okay, so the Doge teamunfortunately came in literally,
was doing all the analysis, andthen we got contacted on four
(29:34):
of the contracts that were cut,literally at 4 o'clock pm.
At 5 o'clock your team is gone.
So 4 o'clock pm, we got thenotice and it wasn't the fault
of the contracting officers.
It's the way they were notified.
So it's all a matter of againthe chaos and the communication,
right, and so we didn't takethat personal.
(29:54):
But we had to figure out whowe're laying off and what this
means.
And in the midst of all thatchaos, I called a management
team meeting.
I made a trip to DC to meet inperson for an all-day session
and I said, okay, guys, first ofall we're going to take a step
back and we're going to calmdown session.
And I said, okay, guys, first ofall we're going to take a step
back and we're going to calmdown.
We are not going to get suckedup into this crisis.
This is not a crisis that wecan control.
(30:14):
We're going to take a step back, we're going to think about
what this means for us and we'regoing to develop a pivot plan.
And we did.
We moved into pivot.
I treated the team to lunch, weworked eight hours straight and
we brought in a consultant tohelp us do a pivot plan.
We're actually in month two ofthat pivot plan implementation.
(30:35):
So we started the pivot plan inFebruary.
It was a 90-day pivot plan andnow we're in implementation mode
.
We're full scale ahead.
We've had tremendous success inthat pivot plan.
That pivot has included a moveinto the private sector to
diversify our business, a moveinto the state and local
government to diversify ourbusiness from federal and an
ownership of where can we belean, mean and cut back expenses
(30:58):
so that we can then focus onthe core delivery of our core
consultants, because there arepeople we can't live without If
we reinvent.
We got to have these key peopleon our team and it has been
incredible.
Pete, you bring together all ofmy senior team brilliant women,
brilliant women.
You bring together them, theconsultant, and they come up
(31:19):
with it and they're leading it.
I have three key members whoare all leading the pivot plans.
We have lanes.
We've pivoted to threedifferent lanes.
They're all in execution modeNow.
They're just reporting to me onhow that pivot pad is going.
I'll be in DC in two weeks tohave a phase two of the pivot
plan and we have quite a bitgoing on in our pipeline and
it's going to be a great yearand our pivot plan is working.
(31:43):
We haven't seen the revenuegeneration yet, but it will come
.
As you know, build it and theywill come.
Dream it and it will happen.
But we have just a greatoutlook on what this is going to
mean and what it did for me,Pete.
As a business owner, is it onceagain forced me to think
different about my strategy andhow to pivot, versus saying, oh
(32:07):
my God, I've lost so muchrevenue, what am I going to do?
Other companies have not beenthat fortunate.
They have lost a lot, and myheart goes out to all the
business owners that lost a lot.
But for us, we are always goingto be the driver of our own
destiny and I have communicatedthat to our leadership team and
they're owning it.
Piet Van Waarde (32:28):
I love that.
I love that.
Well, the last question I wantto ask you is a more personal
question.
There's a effort afoot thatI've had a chance to kind of be
a little bit on the inside ofwhere there is talk of making a
movie of your story.
A movie of your story.
(32:49):
I know that's still very muchkind of like in the infancy
stage, but is there things youcan tell us about this?
What's going on in that?
Rebecca Contreras (33:04):
Well.
So this is once again somethingthat's like accelerated that
David and I both had no ourpotential.
And you know, pete, what'sreally interesting about how God
has worked with us together asa couple is most of what we've
done has been like fullacceleration, not plan it and
then do it, but are you comingLike way ahead.
(33:25):
And so we've had to reallychase what God is doing and keep
up with it.
And I don't know why God workslike that with us, perhaps
because we're crazy enough tojump off a cliff with him.
But my husband is a very strongvisionary in a lot of things
and he tends to I'm the sort ofwell, let's think about the plan
(33:45):
and he's like, let's go.
And so we have a nice balanceto that.
But we are talking right nowwith a couple of producers.
We've launched phase one.
We're doing kind of anexploratory phase one stage to
explore the potential of puttingtogether a multi-series type
movie script and hiring, youknow, script writers to put it
(34:07):
together and do what they call atreatment plan, and we'll see
where it leads.
The next 12 weeks are going tobe super essential to insight
and gained and learned, and thatincludes, you know, reaching
out to the industry.
We already have some greatinterest.
I wouldn't even have thought ofthis had it not come to me
right.
It's not something I came upwith in my head.
(34:27):
It's something that has beenvery heavily been cultivated for
probably the last year andrecently David and I have really
connected with and tried toalign to what's happening.
So we will know in the next 10to 12 weeks what that looks like
.
But it's exciting to think aboutputting Lost Girl and our story
in particular, you know, on thebig screen, but not just to see
(34:51):
it on the big screen.
But, as you know, I'm all aboutimpact and when we think about
the thousands of people thathave been impacted by the story
and just the great opportunityI've had to share it across the
US and even globally, I recentlyhad a FaceTime from a young man
in Africa who, him and hisuniversity students and the
(35:13):
whole orphanage, was readingLost Girl and they were impacted
by the story and they read itagain and again and again and
they FaceTimed me about it I'mlike, wow, there's places that I
think the story willcommunicate incredible hope and
potential and just the story ofredemption and possibility.
So we'll see where it leads.
But I am one of those thattakes things one day at a time,
(35:34):
as is David, and we're justreally trusting God for the next
steps and guidance around thatpotential.
Piet Van Waarde (35:40):
Well, I'm so hopeful about it.
I've had the opportunity, ofcourse, to see some of the
things that you've done and bekind of a fly on the wall, if
you will.
That has heard some of thethings that you've done and be
kind of a fly on the wall, ifyou will.
That has heard some of thestories of people who've been
impacted by your story, who sayI didn't know that I could have
a future, but what you sharedand the life you've lived gives
(36:01):
me inspiration and I've heardthat a few times just in person.
But I'm sure that that happensover and over and again and I
just imagine that a film youknow, and they seem to be, you
know, like you think about theChosen and the.
Story of David and all theseothers that have done so well,
and to hear that this could kindof fit in that same lane, I
(36:25):
just feel like that's going tobe so awesome.
Rebecca Contreras (36:28):
You know, pete, people are so tired of the
crap on digital TV Prime andNetflix and Hula and all the
different digital TV venues andI'm hearing and talking to some
of the producers and even peopleconnected to studios like Angel
Studios, which is a big, youknow, faith film industry I
think they were the producers ofChosen, but others, you know,
(36:52):
facing the Giants and other filmproducers.
And as I'm out there talking topeople and influencers in the
industry, I hear again and againand again your story needs to
be on the big screen, likepeople have to hear your story,
but people are ready for goodcontent.
Piet Van Waarde (37:07):
Yes.
Rebecca Contreras (37:08):
And I don't know about you, but David and I
will flip through Netflix andPrime and try to find
inspirational things to watch,and I think people more than
ever want good content, and sothe concept is let's put.
If it's God's will and if allthe different people align and
the investment is there, thenlet's put it on the screen to
(37:30):
let people know what God hasdone in our life.
Piet Van Waarde (37:33):
Yeah, I love it .
Well, I am going to be prayingtoward that end, for sure.
Rebecca Contreras (37:37):
Thank you for that.
We can always count on you andCarol and our other prayer
warrior team, your brotherPastor Rob and Lauren.
They've been such an incrediblesupport to us for gosh decades
now, so we appreciate everythingthat you do to support us.
Piet Van Waarde (37:53):
Absolutely Well .
Thank you for joining us.
This has been a veryinteresting and fun conversation
with Rebecca, and if you wantto know more about her, I'm
going to link her website below.
You can pick up her book LostGirl and be praying for the
movie that we pray will becomepart of her story and part of
(38:14):
the testimony that she shareswith the world.
So thank you for joining us andjoin us next week for another
Sidewalk Conversation.
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